Official opening of research Centre for big data analysis of the world of finance

The official opening of the Center for Big Data in Finance (BIGFI) at CBS was Thursday March 2nd, 2023. The centre is one of only a few in Denmark to have been carefully selected among applicants representing all fields of research with a prospect of direct support from the Danish National Research Foundation. At the head of the centre is Professor at CBS, Lasse Heje Pedersen, one of the most cited financial economists in the world.

According to Søren Hvidkjær, Dean of Research, the team will consist of eleven senior researchers; six men and five women, as well as PhD students, and it will be affiliated with the Department of Finance at CBS.

Big data must form the basis of all solutions to future challenges

“90 per cent of all data ever produced has been produced within the last two years,”

Said Professor of Finance and Economics at Yale University, Tobias Moskowitz at the opening ceremony of the new centre. He stressed that an exponential growth of data is the very reason we should look at big data in order to find better solutions to the big challenges ahead

Among other things, BIGFI will look at how investors make their decisions – are they rational or biased? And how can financing eventually contribute to the green transition?

“We would like to ensure that Denmark is at the forefront in terms of finance and big data. Big data, AI and machine learning are showing up in all research areas right now, and naturally, we don’t want to be left outside looking in. However, I also believe that we have something really important to contribute,” said Lasse Heje Pedersen, Head of BIGFI.

The centre is prospected to receive DKK 59.4 million from the Danish National Research Foundation, which is the largest external one-off research grant CBS has received so far.

The centre’s ambitious goal of establishing fundamentally new understandings of finance received strong support from the Danish National Research Foundation on the opening day.

“We are convinced that this will lift the research carried out at CBS to new heights – its point of departure is already high, but we expect you to go even further,” said Søren-Peter Fuchs Olesen, Managing Director of the Danish National Research Foundation who gave the opening speech.